Under the changes, the average seniors’ household earning $44,000 per year will pay an extra $212 to access the prescription drug program starting April 1. Some households will have to pay more than $1,500 extra.

“Stephen McNeil has decided he’s going to balance his budget on the backs of seniors who have worked hard all their lives to save for retirement,” says NDP Leader Maureen MacDonald. “The tens of thousands of middle-income, and in some cases low-income, seniors who are being asked to pay more deserve an opportunity to voice their displeasure with this Liberal government. That’s what this petition will provide.”

MacDonald is especially concerned that low-income seniors receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) are no longer exempt from Pharmacare premiums. Incidentally, in 2005 Stephen McNeil said it was wrong for government to charge Pharmacare premiums to seniors receiving the GIS, calling the practice “an injustice.”